I love horror, books I love feminine rage books, and this cover is super cool so I had to grab it.

This book gives me a dark romance butcher and blackbird vibe. It starts off super intense with a bit of dark humor, which is absolutely wonderful. It has a great hook.

We are introduced to two different point of views, which I was totally OK with, and I think definitely adds dimension to a story and allows you to see things from different point of view allows to add for plot twist more tension and more suspense and allows you to see characters from different perspectives.

Then I started to see a different perspective a third POV from six years prior. The first mention was fine, but then it seemed to continue throughout the book. I am not a huge fan of books that go back-and-forth in time to provide context as to what happened. I really prefer when the story is told in a slightly different format rather, the main event be told in the prologue or it be told as a story in dialogue. I do not like it when it’s inserted throughout the book to try to add more context and dimension because then I have to remember six years ago and then I’m brought back to current day and I know that this is a personal preference but it is something that I really do not like.

I think it’s really cool that this protagonist is a contract killer, but I was starting to become uninterested in a bit, lost fairly quickly after the hook due to the multiple point of views the different time frames and to be completely honest some of the metaphors in the writing seemed overly drawn out for a thriller that’s of of this type. Part of me was either wanting more Gothic description or for it to be less flowery with the language, and it began to become slightly confusing because I felt that the flowery language would start each chapter, and it pulled me in slightly, but some of the metaphors were a bit odd and then it would stop. I noticed a pattern of the first paragraph of each chapter being written in this nature, and then it would switch slightly. I didn’t totally mind this, just something I noticed.

My biggest frustration with this book is that I couldn’t send it to my E-reader because it was uploaded in a PDF format, but that is something for my E-reader and I to have a personal argument about. I really heavily prefer when the format that’s uploaded as an epub file so that everyone can access it on their e-readers as well.. those that are willing to read this on their desktop or their tablet or the app.

You will be able to see very cool chapter art:
—Ronan has a skull
-Victoria has a flower
-And the point of view from six years prior is a Needle

While these visuals are cool, they’re also slightly distracting and when I don’t feel like I’m getting proper character development it kind of feels like it’s just decoration to be completely honest, and it pulled me out of the reading experience a bit. In a physical book it would likely add to the experience.

This book did give me butcher in blackbird vibes, and I would read other books by this author, but this one in specific on my tablet it was not the best experience. The notes and texts were also a bit difficult to not be pulled away from the book with. I’m also a reader who doesn’t really enjoy texts in her books, so this is personal preference.

Chapters 38, 39 are 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ enjoy!! ✨🪩

I still enjoyed a majority of the writing style. There was just a few points where my brain was wanting to enjoy the metaphor and just did not. I don’t want to nitpick because I feel this book is a work of art and this is personal preference but this is why I put the book down for now at 67%. Again the first few chapters really pulled me in. The in person experience with this book is gonna be substantially better I think but trying to read this on a tablet with the art going back-and-forth from multiple POV’s is a lot.

Thank you so much for this ARC. I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.

I was excited to read this but the format was all wrong and nonsense so couldn’t read it! I think the publisher should have checked it before it was uploaded.

Absolutely loved this! Didn’t know what to expect going in but it was a lovely introduction to NetGalley and I thought it was brilliant